An International Referred and Peer Reviewed

Online Research Journal

www.darpanonline.org/GIRT

Global International Research Thoughts

ISSN 23478861

July-September 2014

A study of job stress of secondary school

physical education teachers in relation to
their gender and type of schools

*
Virender Kumar
D.P.Ed., M.P.Ed., M.Phil. and NET (Phy. Edu.) Qualified,
V.P.O. Charkhi Dadri, Distt. Bhiwani (Haryana).

ABSTRACT

Inthepresentstudy,effortshavebeenmadetomakeacomparativestudyofjobstressinrelationtogender
andtypeofschool.Asampleof60(30male+30female)physicaleducationteachersofsecondaryschoolsin
Rohtak district were taken as sample on the basis of random sampling method. The Occupational Stress
Index (OSI) by A.K. Srivastava and A.P. Singh. (1983) Hindi/English was used in the present study. The
analysiswasdonebyadoptingstatisticalmean,tratio.Thefindingsofthestudyrevealedthat(i)Maleand
female secondary school physical education teachers do not differ significantly on job stress; and (ii)
Government secondary school physical education teachers have significantly less job stress than private
secondaryschoolphysicaleducationteachers.

KEYWORDS:Jobstress,PhysicalEducationTeacher,Male,Female,Govt.,Private.

INTRODUCTION
The teaching profession is one of the helping professions in which practitioners are normally
committedtogivingtheirbestforthewelfareofthoseentrustedintheircare.Whilethecommitmentis
laudable,theconsequencescanbedetrimentalwhenthejobdemandsovershadowtheindividual'scoping
resources,aswellasthejobrewards;thusleavingthepractitionerfeelingunhappyandunabletoperform
well(Hayward,1991).
Today,PhysicalEducationteachersareplayingaveryvitalroleandtheirworkcanbedividedinto
five different categories of duties namely, planning, teaching, evaluative, administrative and various
unclassified ones. A physical education teacher requires a greater variety of talents than any other
teachingarea.Hisresponsibilitiesarediverseandthesocietylooksuptohimasaleaderwhocancreate
andmaintaingeneralfitnessofthesedentarypeopleinthemachineage.Theriseofsportssciencesuchas
Physiology, Sports Psychology, Sports Sociology, Kinesiology and Bio mechanics has also put a Physical
Education teacher in a novel and sophisticated role. While teaching has traditionally been a respected
occupation,theteachershavebeguntosufferfromlackofsupport,recognitionandrespectfrompublic.
Physical Education teachers feel their workload heavier, strenuous and difficult too. They face a lot of
problems due to longer working hours, inadequate facilities/materials, clerical work and non congenial
workingconditions.Inproportiontotheexpectationsofthesociety,thePhysicalEducationteachersare
notgivendueplaceandrecognition.Thisleadstostressandthisdissatisfaction.Theextentofjobstress,
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An International Referred and Peer Reviewed

Online Research Journal

www.darpanonline.org/GIRT

Global International Research Thoughts

ISSN 23478861

July-September 2014

however,dependslargelyuponbackgroundexperiences,temperamentandenvironmentalconditions.The
idea of a dream job is shattered when one becomes incapable of satisfactorily dealing with the job
challengesandexpectations.Thenthereareemotional,behavioural,physiological,andotheraspectstoo
oftheproblem.
Stress, which is a general term used for pressure that people are exposed to in life (Jepson and
Forrest, 2006) may be defined as the individual harmony effort that the person displays against a
stimulantwhichhasexcessivepsychologicalandphysicalpressureontheperson(Griffin,1990).Whena
personfeelsinsufficientindealingwithdemandsandchallengesfacedinlife,she/heexperiencesstress.
Beingharmedbythissituationortakingadvantageofitmainlydependsonthepersonbecausestressmay
eitherbeafactorthreateningtheorganismphysicallyorpsychologicallyorapowerwhichgivesenergyin
dealing with life (Balta, 2002). Sources of stress may be classified as individual, organizational and
outsideoforganization(Gupta,1981;KreitnerandKinick,1992)oritispossibletodividethemintotwo
groups as individual and organizational components (Nahavandi and Malekzadeh, 1999; Smith and
Milstein,1984).Organizationalstress,whichisalsocalledprofessionalstress,istheinteractionbetween
workingconditionsandtheworkingpersoninenvironmentsinwhichtheworkdemandexceedstheskills
oftheworker(RandallandAltmaier,1994).
Stresssourcesofteachersmaybesummarisedaslowmotivationinstudents,disciplineproblems,
the pressure of time and the work load, being assessed by others, colleague relationship, conflict and
indefiniteness of roles, bad working conditions and selfrespect, students discipline problems, the
inadequate support of colleagues, family and friends (Detert, Derosia, Caravella and Duquette, 2006;
Kyriacou,2001).Inaddition,studentsbeinglatetoschool,theirfailureandstudentsnotdoinghomework
maycausestressinteachers(Adams2001;Joseph,2000).Itisimportantforeducationalorganizationsto
study and manage rationalistically the stress sources of teachers who have the important duty of
educating individuals. Although stress in educational organizations have been determined with various
studies, the number of researchers who have studied in different societies is limited (Kyriacou, 2001).
Kayastha and Kayastha (2012) found that occupational stress is associated with job satisfaction
Occupationalstresswasnegativelyassociatedwithsixjobsatisfactionfacets.Itwasseenthatahighlevel
ofoccupationalstresswillreducejobsatisfaction.Reducingoccupationalstresssuchasworkload,conflict
andUnreasonableGroupandpoliticalpressuresmayleadtohighsatisfactionwithregardstoWork,pay,
coworkers,supervision,Promotion,JobinGeneral.
Occupational stress has become increasingly common in teaching profession largely because of
increased occupational complexities and increased economic pressure on individuals. A major source of
distress among teachers is result of failure of school to meet the social needs and jobs demands of the
teachers.Theteachermustbeawareofhisclearroletobuildupthenation.Teachersareoverburdened
with regular teaching load. Occupational satisfaction is a necessary condition for a healthy growth of
teacherspersonality.Ateacheratpresenthasavulnerableposition.Collegeteachersprotestthattheyare
notpaidenough.Theimportanceofpayorafactorinoccupationalhasbeengreatlyoveremphasized.In
general,occupationalstressarisesfromtheworkingconditions/environmentofasystem,whenwetalkof
stress among teachers. Many factors cause stress among teachers. School teachers face high amounts of
stressduringteachingandhandlingstudents;Classroomindevelopingcountriesremainovercrowdedand
teacher face intensive verbal communications, prolonged standing, high volume of work load. Teachers
are also over burdened with regular teaching work and nonteaching work as election duties, duty in
census;populationscountingetc.theteachersareoftenheardofcomplainingabout.Teachingprofession
occupies important and prestigious place in society. Teachers are considered as the creators of leaders,
scientists, philosophers, advocates, politicians and administrators. Teacher is the principle means for
implementing all educational programmes of the organizations of educations. With the changing socio
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An International Referred and Peer Reviewed

Online Research Journal

www.darpanonline.org/GIRT

Global International Research Thoughts

ISSN 23478861

July-September 2014

economic scenario and increasing unemployment, the values of teacher and their professional concerns
associatedwiththejobhaveundergoneachange,increasingstressesandhasslesofteachers.
Forthisreason,wehavetriedtocontributetofieldresearchbycomparinggeneralstresslevelsof
teachers in different societies. The aim of our study is to determine and compare the stress levels of
physicaleducationteacherswhoworkindifferentsocioculturalsituations.

OBJECTIVESOFTHESTUDY
1. Tostudythejobstressbetweenmaleandfemalesecondaryschoolphysicaleducationteachers.
2. To study the jobstress between government and private secondary school physical education
teachers.
HYPOTHESES
3. Thereisnosignificantdifferenceinjobstressbetweenmaleandfemalesecondaryschoolphysical
educationteachers.
4. Thereisnosignificantdifferenceinjobstressbetweengovernmentandprivatesecondaryschool
physicaleducationteachers.

MATERIALANDMETHOD:
Subjects:
For the purpose of the present study, a total of 60 physical education teachers (30 male + 30
female)teachingingovernmentandprivatesecondaryschoolsofRohtakdistrictwereselectedrandomly.
Toolused:
TheOccupationalStressIndex(OSI)byA.K.SrivastavaandA.P.Singh.(1983)Hindi/Englishwas
usedinthepresentstudy.Itcontains46itemsandrelatedtodifferentstressesOverload,roleambiguity,
role conflict, group pressure, responsibility, under participation, powerlessness, poor peer relationship
etc.
StatisticalAnalysis:

Mean,StandardDeviationandttestwereusedtoanalysethedata.

RESULTS

Thejobstressofmale&femaleandgovernment&privatephysicaleducationteachersaregiven
table1totable2.

Table1
Mean,StandardDeviationandtvalueformeanscoresofjobstresswithrespecttomaleand
femalesecondaryschoolphysicaleducationteachers

Group
N
MeanScores
S.Ds
tvalue
Variable
Male
30
115.97
8.39
JobStress
1.637NS
Female
30
116.67
7.96

NS=NotSignificant

Table 1 reveals that tvalue (1.637) for the mean scores of jobstress between male and female
physicaleducationteacherswhichisnotsignificantatanylevelofsignificance.Inthissituation,thenull
hypothesis There is no significant difference in jobstress between male and female secondary school
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An International Referred and Peer Reviewed

Online Research Journal

www.darpanonline.org/GIRT

Global International Research Thoughts

ISSN 23478861

July-September 2014

physicaleducationteachers,isretained.Itmaythereforebe concludedthatmaleandfemalesecondary
schoolphysicaleducationteachersalmosthavesamelevelofjobstress.

Table2
Mean,StandardDeviationandtvalueformeansscoresofjobstressrespecttogovernmentand
privateschoolphysicaleducationteachers

tvalue
Variable
Group
N
MeanScore
S.D.s
30
112.36
7.37
Govt.SchoolPhysicalEducation
Teachers
Jobstress
7.439**

PrivateSchoolPhysicalEducation
30
120.38
8.98
Teachers

**Significantat0.01level

Table 2 reveals that tvalue (7.439) for the mean scores of jobstress between government and
private schools physical education teachers which is significant at 0.01 level of significance. In this
situation, the null hypothesis There is no significant difference in jobstress between government and
private secondary school physical education teachers, is rejected at 0.01 level of significance. It may
therefore be concluded that government secondary school physical education teachers have less job
stressincomparisontoprivatephysicaleducationteachers.

FINDINGSOFTHESTUDY
1.
It was found there is no significant difference between male and female physical education
teachersregardingjobstress.
2.
Governmentsecondaryschoolphysicaleducationteacherswerefoundtohavelessjobstressthan
privatephysicaleducationteachers.

EDUCATIONALIMPLICATIONS
Thepresentstudywillundoubtedlyenrichtheexistingstockofknowledgeinthefieldofeducation.The
study has great relevance for the teachers. Thus, the finding may be particularly useful for educational
planners, thinkers, demographers, teachers, psychologists, administrators and policy makers especially
concerned with the infrastructure of schools. The present study has given a clear picture of the current
situationtohelpandidentifythefactorsresponsibleforjobstressinthelifeofsecondaryschoolphysical
educationteachers.

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Griffin,R.W.(1990).Management(3rded).Boston:HoughtonMifflinCo.
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Global International Research Thoughts

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